I was watching some news commentary recently on the debate about abortion rights, and access to abortion services here in the United States, and the number of states where it is being severely curtailed. It was interesting to me that most of the commentators were men, many with strident opinions about everything that should be done concerning pregnancy, women’s health and the health of babies.Honestly. I can’t imagine what it must be like for women in America to watch this; I think that even a conservative woman who is against abortion must wonder why these men have such strong opinions about something they cannot in any way comprehend.
I think the world would be a much better and simpler place if men just shut their mouths once issues of women’s health come up. We can never get it. We can never understand. It’s not part of our world. All we can do is love and support the women in our lives. They are the ones who know what is best for them. They are the ones who know what is best for their bodies and they should be left alone with their doctors to make these decisions. Husbands should surely be informed and consulted but it should always be the woman’s decision. Period, full stop.
Heck, at this point in time, I even wonder why there are male gynecologists at all. It just doesn’t make sense to me. But I’ve also read, that there were woman who did not want to woman gynecologist. So I’ll take my own advice, and STFU.Another thing that doesn’t make sense to me is the fixation of religious people on late-term abortion. Please, folks, read up on this. It is one of the saddest, most heartbreaking, horrific topics I have ever encountered, and the fact that people choose to believe this is a frivolous choice that some people might make because they just don’t want a baby — or that it’s a choice that can be made for any baby, at any time up until it’s born — is damaged thinking. NOBODY has the choice to say, “Oh well we’ve made it nine months but we just don’t feel like dealing with a baby at this time, so let’s just have the abortion now.”
This does not happen, it is a full-on heinous lie, and for anyone to suggest that it does happen is beyond sick and beyond perverse, and the people that believe this need to look into their hearts and think. It’s mind-boggling to me that anyone would believe this; if you felt that this procedure, “late-term abortion”, where you can just kill any baby, is part of standard medical practice; if that was the world we lived in, I wouldn’t have anything to do with any doctor ever!
These are, in fact, the most horrific situations that people will ever encounter in their lives. These are women who are far along in their pregnancy and just waiting for the time to bring home their baby; then something horrible happens. Something horrible is found out and they have to make the most grievous and painful choices of their lives; heart-rending, shattering choices that none of us could even conceive of; they have to make these choices.
This is not frivolous stuff and thankfully medical science allows women to make hard but necessary choices. Because the alternative is what we see happening in the states that have already limited or eliminated abortion. A new study from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health reports around a 13% spike in infant mortality overall, and neonatal mortality, which is when a baby less than 28 days old passes. Infant deaths due to congenital abnormalities rose 23% in TX in the first year after their 2021 near total abortion ban. Overall in the USA congenital abnormalities, account for more than 20% of infant deaths and are the number one cause of infant death, but these tragic cases have been declining across the USA in general. So now in TX families are forced to birth and perhaps bring home sick babies that have to be cared for til they die; babies forced to live short lives of suffering because some groups of people insist their religious beliefs should rule over our nation, and that they are able to control the medical care of other people based on these beliefs.
Through this they bring misery and suffering to many people’s lives.
How could your god ever want this?
This is not our country and this is a deep shattering of anything that resembles bedrock in America; nor does it represent freedom for the American people, particularly American Women.
So from here on out, American men, when it comes to the health of the women we love the only answer is, “yes, dear, you know what is best for you and your body”; and when it comes to the healthcare of women we don’t know, women in general, it’s time for men to shut the fuck up.
